


The Tale of the Telerin Flute-Player

by Himring



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Music, Noldolante, Valinor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 08:04:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himring/pseuds/Himring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the War of Wrath, Maglor's wife, a musician of Telerin descent who remained behind in Valinor, learns that her husband has written his most famous composition while in Middle-earth--and that it is entitled Noldolante: The Fall of the Noldor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of the Telerin Flute-Player

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DawnFelagund](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnFelagund/gifts).



> Originally written as a gift fic for Dawn Felagund at the end of B2MeM 2012, for my last B2MeM prompt that month: flute playing.

When Maglor’s wife first heard of that most famous work of her husband’s, the Noldolante, she pulled a face as if she had just bitten into an unripe lemon.

‘Men!’ she exclaimed. ‘Even when they indulge in regrets, it’s all about themselves! “The Fall of the Noldor”, forsooth! The Noldor! What about everyone else?’

And she refused to hear the Noldolante performed or even discussed, just as she continued to refuse to set foot in Tirion and just as she refused to perform for people who dared to introduce her as “Maglor’s wife” rather than as a musician in her own right.

However, one day she received an invitation to Valmar to meet the great Elemmire, whom she had greatly admired from afar for the longest time. Elemmire welcomed her most graciously, complimented her on her skill on the recorder and the transverse flute and invited her to stay for a small intimate concert at his house. Towards the end of the evening, a Vanyarin alto performed a hymn to Varda’s stars with such depth of feeling that she sat awestruck and silent.

When she regained her power of speech, she asked shyly: ‘I have not heard this hymn before. Was it you who composed it, Elemmire?’

He looked at her in astonishment and asked: ‘Are you really unfamiliar with it? But it is part of the Noldolante!’

She was astounded and abashed and Elemmire, perceiving this, quickly changed the subject and talked lightly of other things.

She departed from Valmar on the following day and, returning towards Alqualonde, she passed through a village where a festival was being held. The main square was hung with garlands, wine flowed freely, and the younger and less dignified of the villagers were partnering each other in a vigorous dance. She stopped for a goblet of wine, and the tune set her foot a-tapping.

‘I haven’t heard this dance tune before’, she said. ‘Is it a recent one?’

‘You’ve never heard it?’ they asked her. ‘But it is part of the Noldolante!’

She set down her goblet on the table half full and left in annoyance. These Vanyar really did not show the right attitude!

After a long and weary journey, she was finally approaching the gates of Alqualonde. She passed a lone Telerin fisherman mending his nets and, as he worked, he was quietly singing to himself, a sweet simple ditty all about the grief of a woman whose husband dwelt far away in foreign lands.

She turned aside from the road.

‘What song is this?’ she asked, looming over him rather menacingly.

He came out of his reverie, looked startled and bit his lip.

‘It is part of the Noldolante’, he admitted apologetically.

She entered the city and walked down to the quays of the harbour. She sat on the eastern edge of the longest quay, dangling her legs above the water and looking towards Tol Eressea. Then she took out her flute.

First, she played the tune of the hymn to Varda’s stars. Then, she played the dance tune. Finally, she played the tune of the short ditty about the lonely wife.

After that she put her flute away and sat in silence, listening to the waves.

**Author's Note:**

> Maglor's wife, in this story, is a Teler and a flute-player just like Dawn Felagund's Vingarie (Maglor's wife in Another Man's Cage and elsewhere in Felak-verse). She is not, however, actually intended to be Vingarie.
> 
> I have written elsewhere about the Noldolante. (So far, these stories are not up on AO3, only on SWG.   
> ETA: They should all be up on AO3 now, except the ones that are still in the works. If you should spot a completed story of mine that hasn't been uploaded to AO3, feel free to alert me!)


End file.
